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Subject: LABOR AND WAR - by Dave Riehle
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LABOR AND WAR
by Dave Riehle
http://www.kclabor.org/labor_and_war.htm
Dave Riehle is a railroad worker, a United Transportation Union Local=20
Chairman on the Union Pacific in the Twin Cities. He played a prominent role=
=20
in the Vietnam antiwar movement as well as opposition to U.S. intervention i=
n=20
Central America during the 1980-90s. This article is based on a talk=20
delivered to the Labor Speakers Club, a forum that meets at space provided b=
y=20
the St Paul Trades & Labor Assembly, December 9, 2002.
Labor isn=E2=80=99t supposed to talk about war. Labor is supposed to keep it=
s mouth=20
shut, pay the taxes, build the guns, planes and bombs and fight the wars.=20
Well, we=E2=80=99re breaking the rules here.
What is it about this coming war? There is more discussion, agitation and=20
opposition to an impending war than within living memory of almost anyone=20
here. Other speakers, I=E2=80=99m sure, will talk more about that. I want to=
use my=20
time to try to address this underlying issue of whether labor should debate=20
war and foreign policy within our own councils.
Who decides whether we go to war? Congress hasn=E2=80=99t made that decision=
since=20
1941 and the American people have never been allowed to have a referendum on=
=20
whether to go to war. This is, among other things, fundamentally=20
undemocratic. And, considering that we fight all our wars, so we are told, t=
o=20
protect and extend democracy, it is remarkably inconsistent.
PEACE
The movement for peace in this country=E2=80=94the movement against unjust w=
ars=E2=80=94
extends back many generations, many decades. And it has many tributaries. In=
=20
the broadest sense, I think you can say that the peace movement has had two=20
great sources of inspiration and political conviction=E2=80=94the religious=20=
and the=20
secular. For many people these elements overlap each other and of course tha=
t=20
is so within the labor movement. The religious tradition looks, I suppose,=20
more than anywhere else, to the figure of Jesus as an exemplar of peace and=20
love. And the greatest exponent of the struggle against war in our American=20
history, who belongs heart and soul to the labor movement, is Eugene Debs.=20
Nobody has anything bad to say about these two now, although, as we know,=20
they were both reviled in their day. The trouble is, too few people seem=20
interested in imitating either one of them.
My union, made of railroad workers, claims Eugene Debs as one of our own, as=
=20
our inspiration for unity, solidarity, brotherhood. "Our Gene," as the=20
workers used to say, led the great Pullman railroad strike in 1894 and ran=20
for President five times as the candidate of the Socialist party. In 1920,=20
the last time he ran for President, he got a million votes while he was a=20
prisoner in Atlanta Federal prison, sentenced to ten years for his great=20
antiwar speech at Canton, Ohio, delivered during World War I.
Why shouldn=E2=80=99t workers talk about war? Jesus was a carpenter and Gene=
Debs was=20
a locomotive fireman. They talked about it. Debs said: "The master class has=
=20
always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles."=20
Who more than us has a right to these discussions? It is the sons, and now=20
the daughters too, of workers, who fight the wars. It is the working class=20
who pays for them=E2=80=94in increased taxes=E2=80=94in wage freezes and inf=
lation and=20
no-strike pledges=E2=80=94and who bears the consequences for years and gener=
ations=20
afterward=E2=80=94the personal pain and trauma of loved ones who are lost--a=
nd=20
damaged human beings who survive these abominations.
DEBATE
John Sweeney=E2=80=99s call for full debate on this question is most welcome=
and=20
important. It is, President Sweeney says, "sons and daughters of America's=20
working families who will be asked to carry out this mission." He says, "It=20
appears to many of our members that the sudden urgency for a decision about=20
peace and war has as much to do with the political calendar as with the=20
situation in Iraq."
This call is not only important, and progressive, but it is new and=20
different. Samuel Gompers did not call for full debate over US entry into=20
World War I and his successors did not call for full debate over entry into=20
World War II, Korea, Vietnam or anything else. Yet today we have union=20
antiwar resolutions popping up everywhere=E2=80=94from the biggest Teamsters=
local in=20
Chicago to the Duluth Central Labor Body to many, many more. This is, at=20
bottom, yet one more expression of the so-called Vietnam Syndrome=E2=80=94th=
at is,=20
the deep, abiding and residual resistance of the American people to being=20
drawn into another foreign war.
TWO TRADITIONS
Labor is not supposed to trespass on the prerogatives of the ruling and=20
governing classes to make war. Most people who haven=E2=80=99t looked into t=
his too=20
deeply assume that the labor movement is a bulwark of pro-war sentiment. The=
=20
most enduring image, probably, is from the Vietnam War, when hundreds of=20
hard-hatted construction workers attacked antiwar demonstrators in the Wall=20
Street area of New York City.
Labor is not supposed to trespass on the prerogatives of the ruling and=20
governing classes to make war. This concept is so deeply rooted in tradition=
,=20
and practice, that it is easy to assume that it was always so. But, like mos=
t=20
things that seem like they are a part of a permanent and unchanging=20
landscape, this tradition has a history, and a specific beginning.
It really goes back only about 100 years, to when America started to send it=
s=20
troops beyond the shores of this country=E2=80=94specifically to the Spanish=
American=20
War, when we occupied Cuba and the Philippine Islands. And it continued.
The famous retired Marine Corps General Smedley Butler=E2=80=94and I know ma=
ny of you=20
know this=E2=80=94spoke out in the 1930=E2=80=99s:
"War is just a racket...I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests=
=20
in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City=20
Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen=20
Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify=20
Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912=
.=20
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in=20
1916. In China I helped to see that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
I cannot refrain from pointing out here that Prescott Bush, the grandfather=20
of the current president, was managing partner for the banking house of Brow=
n=20
Brother Harriman in the 1930=E2=80=99s and =E2=80=9840=E2=80=99s.
The dominant practice in this country over the last century has been that=20
labor does not trespass on the prerogative of the employers government to=20
determine foreign policy, and, of course, war. Those who have violated this=20
social compact have been severely repressed, marginalized and written out of=
=20
history. But it is important to remember that there are TWO traditions here,=
=20
not one. And labor=E2=80=99s antiwar roots are especially deep in this state=
. I=20
especially urge you to read David Montgomery=E2=80=99s wonderful talk, "Labo=
r in=20
Wartime, some lessons from history," which he delivered last year at the=20
Meeting the Challenge conference. There are re-prints of it available here=20
tonight, and the full text is on the Workday Minnesota website.
In the years before World War I Tom Van Lear of Minneapolis was the General=20
Chairman for the railroad section of the International Association of=20
Machinists. He was also an active socialist, a follower of Gene Debs. In 191=
6=20
he ran for Mayor of Minneapolis and was carried into office on a wave of=20
working class antiwar sentiment. He appointed his friend and comrade Lewis=20
Harthill, another railroad machinist, as Chief of Police. The bosses and the=
=20
Citizens Alliance went wild. One of Tom Van Lear=E2=80=99s first acts in off=
ice was=20
to call a huge antiwar rally in the Minneapolis Auditorium. Of course nobody=
=20
remembers him today except historians, and not very many of them, either.
In 1941 the leaders of Minneapolis Teamster=E2=80=99s Local 544, including J=
ake=20
Cooper and Harry DeBoer, whom many of you knew, were militant socialists and=
=20
opponents of the coming war. Eighteen of them were sent to Federal prison=20
during world War II after being convicted of sedition.
And there is much more=E2=80=94the heroic opposition of the Industrial Workers of the=20
World=E2=80=94the "Wobblies" to the war, the militant farmers in the Non=
Partisan=20
League, the principled conscientious objectors like our friend Al Eide, a=20
regular at the Labor Speakers Club meetings over the years, who sat in=20
Sandstone Prison with the Minneapolis Teamsters during World War II.
OCTOBER 26
I=E2=80=99m sure many of you participated in the huge antiwar march and rall=
y on=20
October 26 at the State Capitol. I think we were all stunned by the size of=20
it. And not only the size. But what it meant. THERE was the Vietnam syndrome=
,=20
on the streets and marching=E2=80=94against a war that hadn=E2=80=99t even s=
tarted yet=E2=80=94and=20
by people who weren=E2=80=99t even born during the Vietnam War. It was one o=
f those=20
times when you get a sense of what it means to cross the line from political=
=20
protest to social mobilization.
This was the largest antiwar demonstration in this state since the Vietnam W=
ar
=E2=80=94in other words the largest in some thirty years.
It was also the largest political demonstration of any kind in the state=20
since the Minnesota AFL-CIO mobilized 11,000 workers at the State Capitol in=
=20
the mid 1980=E2=80=99s to protest against union busting in International Fal=
ls by the=20
International Paper Company and BE&K Construction Company.
There was some disagreement on the size of the October 26 demonstration, as=20
you are aware. The Pioneer Press reported that it was only 3-4,000. They sai=
d=20
that the police "estimated" that there were 3-4,000 and that the march=20
organizers "claimed" there were over 10,000=E2=80=94an interesting use of=20
counterposed language, by the way. Let me show you this photo of the October=
=20
26, which I found on the Internet. You can see people filling the northbound=
=20
lane of John Ireland Boulevard all the way from the cathedral to the State=20
Capitol steps, with people still leaving the starting point. This is=20
obviously way more than 3-4,000.
I don=E2=80=99t think anyone here doubts that the Pioneer Press, a subset of=
the huge=20
Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, a ruthless union-busting media conglomerate,=20
has a vested interest in understating the numbers who came out into the=20
streets to protest Bush=E2=80=99s war policy, which is their policy too. And=
, since=20
newspapers constitute part of the historic record, this false report is a=20
falsification of history. Does it matter? I think it does.
DEBS IN ST PAUL
When Gene Debs came to St Paul in January, 1895, just before he reported to=20
Cook county jail to serve his sentence for leading Pullman strike he told a=20
crowd of thousands that turned out to see him, and I quote, that "nothing=20
equaled the mendacity and malignancy of the St Paul daily newspapers." The=20
Pioneer Press, he said, should change its name to the Plutocratic Press.
MAY 1970
Let me just take a look back at the largest antiwar demonstration in the=20
history of the state, because I was there too, and comparisons kept running=20
through my mind on October 26. In early May, 1970, just days after Nixon=E2=
=80=99s=20
escalation of the Vietnam War by invading Cambodia, and just days after the=20
killing of four student protestors at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard,=
=20
as you undoubtedly know, an enormous wave of student protests and strike=20
swept across the country. This culminated here with an enormous march to the=
=20
State Capitol on Saturday, May 9, 1970. It came from Minneapolis, down Summi=
t=20
Avenue, around the Cathedral and then down John Ireland Boulevard, as it did=
=20
on October 26. It was led by several hundred recently returned Vietnam=20
veterans. Even the police ESTIMATED there were 20-25,000 people there. The=20
Pioneer Press "claimed=E2=80=99 there were 18,000.
LABOR AND THE VIETNAM WAR
In 1971 the Nixon administration took another step in escalating the war at=20
home: the Wage Price Freeze=E2=80=94the first time since World War II that t=
he=20
government had attempted to impose direct economic control=E2=80=94aimed dir=
ectly at=20
organized labor and its then current round of national negotiations over=20
wages. This began to--even more--direct the attention of organized labor to=20
the connection between the war and conditions at home, and increased=20
receptivity to antiwar appeals even more. There was no doubt on anybody=E2=
=80=99s=20
part that this dictate from the Nixon=E2=80=99s Administration was directed=20=
against=20
labor. All strikes were forbidden during the 90 days test period=E2=80=94obv=
iously a=20
trial balloon to see what labor=E2=80=99s reaction would be.
The fall of 1971 was the first opportunity to test out this new climate here=
,=20
and in the course of building support for yet another antiwar demonstration,=
=20
there were some unprecedented gains in labor support.
In October 1971 the St Paul Trades and Labor Assembly passed, with one=20
dissenting vote, a resolution calling for immediate withdrawal from Vietnam=20
and endorsing the November 6 march on the State Capitol. I have it here and=20=
I=20
want to show it to you, in case anyone thinks I=E2=80=99m making this up. Th=
e rally=20
was chaired by Norm Hammink, the president of Typographical Local 30 and a=20
delegate to the Assembly.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those brothers and sisters of=
=20
conscience who spoke out here at that time: Frank Zaragoza of the Operating=20
Engineers; Gordie Spielman of the Union Advocate, Bob Killeen of UAW, Ed=20
Donahue of the Lithographers, Norm Hammink of the Typographical Union=E2=80=
=94even=20
though he didn=E2=80=99t get along with my father=E2=80=94and the St Paul an=
d Minneapolis=20
Teachers Unions, who carried many important resolutions on war into broader=20
labor bodies.
JOHN T WILLIAMS
John T Williams, who was a prominent African American officer of Teamsters=20
Local 208 in Los Angeles, and a national anti Vietnam war leader, used to=20
say, "When the students stood up against the war, it pricked the conscience=20
of America=E2=80=94but when labor sits down against the war=E2=80=94the war=20=
will end."
SITDOWN
As it turned out, organized labor did not sit down in the factories and the=20
workplaces to stop the war before direct American participation in the groun=
d=20
war ended in Jan 1973. Maybe we would have if it had gone on longer. Maybe i=
f=20
we had we would have known what to do when they started moving our jobs to=20
overseas sweatshops. But even this is more complicated. The Vietnam War WAS=20
ended by a sit-down strike=E2=80=94-a sit-down strike by labor, even---and t=
his is=20
the best-kept secret of the war. The GI=E2=80=99s, the American troops, ende=
d the war=20
by going on a sit-down strike. They just quit fighting. By 1972 refusals to=20
fight were becoming epidemic. Troops who were ordered to head into the jungl=
e=20
to fight would go out a ways and just find a spot to stop at where there was=
=20
no fighting.
By mid-1972 it was clear to the inner circles of the Pentagon that if the wa=
r=20
did not end VERY soon, the probability of open insurrection breaking out=20
among the troops=E2=80=94somewhere, somehow and rapidly spreading throughout=
the Army=20
in Vietnam was very great=E2=80=94in fact a certainty. This was an urgent an=
d=20
unpostponable crisis with no solution other than a rapid end to the ground=20
war. Not only would this have created an incredible crisis of American power=
=20
throughout the world, but it, probably more than any other factor, would hav=
e=20
accelerated the movement of organized labor into antiwar action. This is wha=
t=20
really happened.
WALTER REUTHER
It was the great student strike in May 1970 that broke the solid front of=20
organized labor in support for the war. On May 7 Walter Reuther, the head of=
=20
the United Auto Workers union and possibly the most authoritative union=20
leader in the United States at that time, telegrammed President Nixon=20
condemning his decision to invade Cambodia and calling the Kent State=20
killings "inexcusable." Other top union leaders repeated Reuther=E2=80=99s e=
xample:=20
Pat Gorman of the Meatcutters and Jacob Potofsky of the Clothing Workers.
And then this happened: On May 9, 1970, the same day as the giant St Paul=20
antiwar demonstration, a private plane crashed on its approach to a small=20
airport at Pellston, Michigan, near the site of the UAW=E2=80=99s Black Lake=
=20
conference center. All six people aboard were killed, including Walter=20
Reuther and his wife May...I think any further comment on this event would b=
e=20
superfluous, under the circumstances.
CONCLUSION
The stakes are high, very high, in this struggle. But it must be fought.=20
Inherent in the reckless warmongering of the un-elected oil oligarchy in the=
=20
White House is the possibility of nuclear war and the unimaginable=20
catastrophe for the human race that that implies.There are two things I want=
=20
to point to in conclusion. One, there is unprecedented opposition to and=20
agitation around the impending war with Iraq. Labor is more deeply engaged i=
n=20
this process than at any time since the period before World War I=E2=80=94th=
e war, I=20
might add, that was advertised as the "War to End War." The Vietnam Syndrome=
,=20
far from being dispersed by several decades of unceasing and escalating=20
pro-war propaganda, especially in the popular culture, has visibly re-emerge=
d=20
with great force, renewed by a new generation of antiwar activists.Two, it=20
ought to be crystal clear, and I=E2=80=99m sure it is to the warmakers, that=
a=20
prolonged ground war in the Middle East would provoke a wave of active=20
opposition that would reach far into the ranks of labor. That much is obviou=
s=20
already. The only possible government response to that, if they were not=20
willing to abandon their war, would be greatly increased repression of free=20
speech, free assembly and free expression. You would have to be blind to fai=
l=20
to see that the administration has already reached this conclusion and is=20
preemptively putting into place a repressive apparatus unprecedented since=20
the public safety committees of world War I. The now official establishment=20
of the "Homeland Security Department," with its echoes of the Nazi Heimwehr=20=
=E2=80=93
the "Homeland Defense" battalions of the SS--should make it plain enough wha=
t=20
is being prepared. The recent intervention by the administration in the=20
Longshore Workers contract negotiations shows where they are headed with=20
this.The labor movement has the power to stop this, if it is united and=20
willing to act. If this can happen, it will not occur just in one step. It=20
will require discussion=E2=80=94and debate=E2=80=94in the halls of labor=E2=
=80=94just as is=20
beginning here. If we allow this discussion to be driven out of the labor=20
halls and the union meetings=E2=80=94if we allow the discussion to be monopo=
lized by=20
the professional politicians, the newspaper pundits and the talking heads on=
=20
TV=E2=80=94the cause of peace will be far set back, and the working people,=20=
those in=20
uniform as well as those in the workplaces, will suffer again. Nothing good=20
comes out of war=E2=80=94wars for conquest, wars for profit, wars for domina=
tion.Let=20
me finish with this: Our comrade and teacher Gene Debs told us, in his speec=
h=20
at Canton, Ohio in 1918:"Do not worry over the charge of treason to your=20
masters, but be concerned about the treason that involves yourselves. Be tru=
e=20
to yourselves and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth." =20
=20
--part1_32.3233bb5a.2b4540a7_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8"
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LABOR AND WAR<=
BR>
by Dave Riehle

http://www.kclabor.org/labor_and_war.htm

Dave Riehle is a railr=
oad worker, a United Transportation Union Local Chairman on the Union Pacifi=
c in the Twin Cities. He played a prominent role in the Vietnam antiwar move=
ment as well as opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America during th=
e 1980-90s. This article is based on a talk delivered to the Labor Speakers=20=
Club, a forum that meets at space provided by the St Paul Trades & Labor=
Assembly, December 9, 2002.=

What is it about this coming war? There is more discussion, agitation and op=
position to an impending war than within living memory of almost anyone here=
. Other speakers, I=E2=80=99m sure, will talk more about that. I want to use=
my time to try to address this underlying issue of whether labor should deb=
ate war and foreign policy within our own councils.

Who decides whether we go to war? Congress hasn=E2=80=99t made that decision=
since 1941 and the American people have never been allowed to have a refere=
ndum on whether to go to war. This is, among other things, fundamentally und=
emocratic. And, considering that we fight all our wars, so we are told, to p=
rotect and extend democracy, it is remarkably inconsistent.

PEACEThe movement for peace=
in this country=E2=80=94the movement against unjust wars=E2=80=94extends ba=
ck many generations, many decades. And it has many tributaries. In the broad=
est sense, I think you can say that the peace movement has had two great sou=
rces of inspiration and political conviction=E2=80=94the religious and the s=
ecular. For many people these elements overlap each other and of course that=
is so within the labor movement. The religious tradition looks, I suppose,=20=
more than anywhere else, to the figure of Jesus as an exemplar of peace and=20=
love. And the greatest exponent of the struggle against war in our American=20=
history, who belongs heart and soul to the labor movement, is Eugene Debs. N=
obody has anything bad to say about these two now, although, as we know, the=
y were both reviled in their day. The trouble is, too few people seem intere=
sted in imitating either one of them.

My union, made of railroad workers, claims Eugene Debs as one of our own, as=
our inspiration for unity, solidarity, brotherhood. "Our Gene," as the work=
ers used to say, led the great Pullman railroad strike in 1894 and ran for P=
resident five times as the candidate of the Socialist party. In 1920, the la=
st time he ran for President, he got a million votes while he was a prisoner=
in Atlanta Federal prison, sentenced to ten years for his great antiwar speech at Canton, Ohio<=
/A>, delivered during World War I.

DEBATEJohn Sweeney=E2=80=99s=
call for full debate on this question is most welcome and important. It is,=
President Sweeney says, "sons and daughters of America's working families w=
ho will be asked to carry out this mission." He says, "It appears to many of=
our members that the sudden urgency for a decision about peace and war has=20=
as much to do with the political calendar as with the situation in Iraq."

This call is not only important, and progressive, but it is new and differen=
t. Samuel Gompers did not call for full debate over US entry into World War=20=
I and his successors did not call for full debate over entry into World War=20=
II, Korea, Vietnam or anything else. Yet today we have union antiwar resolut=
ions popping up everywhere=E2=80=94from the biggest Teamsters local in Chica=
go to the Duluth Central Labor Body to many, many more. This is, at bottom,=20=
yet one more expression of the so-called Vietnam Syndrome=E2=80=94that is, t=
he deep, abiding and residual resistance of the American people to being dra=
wn into another foreign war.

TWO TR=
ADITIONSLabor is not supposed=20=
to trespass on the prerogatives of the ruling and governing classes to make<=
B> war. Most people who haven=E2=80=99t looked into this too deeply assu=
me that the labor movement is a bulwark of pro-war sentiment. The most endur=
ing image, probably, is from the Vietnam War, when hundreds of hard-hatted c=
onstruction workers attacked antiwar demonstrators in the Wall Street area o=
f New York City.

Labor is not supposed to trespass on the prerogatives of the ruling and gove=
rning classes to makewar. This concept is so deeply rooted in tradit=
ion, and practice, that it is easy to assume that it was always so. But, lik=
e most things that seem like they are a part of a permanent and unchanging l=
andscape, this tradition has a history, and a specific beginning.

It really goes back only about 100 years, to when America started to send it=
s troops beyond the shores of this country=E2=80=94specifically to the Spani=
sh American War, when we occupied Cuba and the Philippine Islands. And it co=
ntinued.

The famous retired Marine Corps General Smedley Butler=E2=80=94and I know ma=
ny of you know this=E2=80=94spoke out in the 1930=E2=80=99s:

"War is just a racket...I helped make Mexico safe for American oil intere=
sts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National Ci=
ty Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen=20=
Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify N=
icaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912.=
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1=
916. In China I helped to see that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

I cannot refrain from pointing out here that Prescott Bush, the grandfat=
her of the current president, was managing partner for the banking house of=20=
Brown Brother Harriman in the 1930=E2=80=99s and =E2=80=9840=E2=80=99s.

The dominant practice in this country over the last century has been that la=
bor does not trespass on the prerogative of the employers government to dete=
rmine foreign policy, and, of course, war. Those who have violated this soci=
al compact have been severely repressed, marginalized and written out of his=
tory. But it is important to remember that there are TWO traditions here, no=
t one. And labor=E2=80=99s antiwar roots are especially deep in this state.=20=
I especially urge you to read David Montgomery=E2=80=99s wonderful talk, "La=
bor in Wartime, some lessons from history," which he delivered last year at=20=
the Meeting the Challenge conference. There are re-prints of it available he=
re tonight, and the full text is on the Workday Minnesota website.

In the years before World War I Tom Van Lear of Minneapolis was the General=20=
Chairman for the railroad section of the International Association of Machin=
ists. He was also an active socialist, a follower of Gene Debs. In 1916 he r=
an for Mayor of Minneapolis and was carried into office on a wave of working=
class antiwar sentiment. He appointed his friend and comrade Lewis Harthill=
, another railroad machinist, as Chief of Police. The bosses and the Citizen=
s Alliance went wild. One of Tom Van Lear=E2=80=99s first acts in office was=
to call a huge antiwar rally in the Minneapolis Auditorium. Of course nobod=
y remembers him today except historians, and not very many of them, either.<=
BR>
In 1941 the leaders of Minneapolis Teamster=E2=80=99s Local 544, including J=
ake Cooper and Harry DeBoer, whom many of you knew, were militant socialists=
and opponents of the coming war. Eighteen of them were sent to Federal pris=
on during world War II after being convicted of sedition.

And there is much more=E2=80=94the heroic opposition of the Industrial Workers of the World=E2=80=94the "Wobblies" t=
o the war, the militant farmers in the Non Partisan League, the principled c=
onscientious objectors like our friend Al Eide, a regular at the Labor Speak=
ers Club meetings over the years, who sat in Sandstone Prison with the Minne=
apolis Teamsters during World War II.

OCTOBER 26I=E2=80=99m sure many=20=
of you participated in the huge antiwar march and rally on October 26 at the=
State Capitol. I think we were all stunned by the size of it. And not only=20=
the size. But what it meant. THERE was the Vietnam syndrome, on the streets=20=
and marching=E2=80=94against a war that hadn=E2=80=99t even started yet=E2=
=80=94and by people who weren=E2=80=99t even born during the Vietnam War. It=
was one of those times when you get a sense of what it means to cross the l=
ine from political protest to social mobilization.

This was the largest antiwar demonstration in this state since the Vietnam W=
ar=E2=80=94in other words the largest in some thirty years.

It was also the largest political demonstration of any kind in the state sin=
ce the Minnesota AFL-CIO mobilized 11,000 workers at the State Capitol in th=
e mid 1980=E2=80=99s to protest against union busting in International Falls=
by the International Paper Company and BE&K Construction Company.

There was some disagreement on the size of the October 26 demonstration, as=20=
you are aware. The Pioneer Press reported that it was only 3-4,000. T=
hey said that the police "estimated" that there were 3-4,000 and that the ma=
rch organizers "claimed" there were over 10,000=E2=80=94an interesting use o=
f counterposed language, by the way. Let me show you this photo of the Octob=
er 26, which I found on the Internet. You can see people filling the northbo=
und lane of John Ireland Boulevard all the way from the cathedral to the Sta=
te Capitol steps, with people still leaving the starting point. This is obvi=
ously way more than 3-4,000.

I don=E2=80=99t think anyone here doubts that the Pioneer Press, a su=
bset of the huge Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, a ruthless union-busting med=
ia conglomerate, has a vested interest in understating the numbers who came=20=
out into the streets to protest Bush=E2=80=99s war policy, which is their po=
licy too. And, since newspapers constitute part of the historic record, this=
false report is a falsification of history. Does it matter? I think it does=
.

DEBS IN ST PAULWhen Gene Debs came to=
St Paul in January, 1895, just before he reported to Cook county jail to se=
rve his sentence for leading Pullman strike he told a crowd of thousands tha=
t turned out to see him, and I quote, that "nothing equaled the mendacity an=
d malignancy of the St Paul daily newspapers." The Pioneer Press, he=20=
said, should change its name to the Plutocratic Press.

MAY 1970Let me just take a loo=
k back at the largest antiwar demonstration in the history of the state, bec=
ause I was there too, and comparisons kept running through my mind on Octobe=
r 26. In early May, 1970, just days after Nixon=E2=80=99s escalation of the=20=
Vietnam War by invading Cambodia, and just days after the killing of four st=
udent protestors at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard, as you undoubtedl=
y know, an enormous wave of student protests and strike swept across the cou=
ntry. This culminated here with an enormous march to the State Capitol on Sa=
turday, May 9, 1970. It came from Minneapolis, down Summit Avenue, around th=
e Cathedral and then down John Ireland Boulevard, as it did on October 26. I=
t was led by several hundred recently returned Vietnam veterans. Even the po=
lice ESTIMATED there were 20-25,000 people there. The Pioneer Press "=
claimed=E2=80=99 there were 18,000.

LABOR AND THE VIETNAM WAR=
In 1971 the Nixon admi=
nistration took another step in escalating the war at home: the Wage Price F=
reeze=E2=80=94the first time since World War II that the government had atte=
mpted to impose direct economic control=E2=80=94aimed directly at organized=20=
labor and its then current round of national negotiations over wages. This b=
egan to--even more--direct the attention of organized labor to the connectio=
n between the war and conditions at home, and increased receptivity to antiw=
ar appeals even more. There was no doubt on anybody=E2=80=99s part that this=
dictate from the Nixon=E2=80=99s Administration was directed against labor.=
All strikes were forbidden during the 90 days test period=E2=80=94obviously=
a trial balloon to see what labor=E2=80=99s reaction would be.

The fall of 1971 was the first opportunity to test out this new climate here=
, and in the course of building support for yet another antiwar demonstratio=
n, there were some unprecedented gains in labor support.

In October 1971 the St Paul Trades and Labor Assembly passed, with one disse=
nting vote, a resolution calling for immediate withdrawal from Vietnam and e=
ndorsing the November 6 march on the State Capitol. I have it here and I wan=
t to show it to you, in case anyone thinks I=E2=80=99m making this up. The r=
ally was chaired by Norm Hammink, the president of Typographical Local 30 an=
d a delegate to the Assembly.

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those brothers and sisters of=
conscience who spoke out here at that time: Frank Zaragoza of the Operating=
Engineers; Gordie Spielman of the Union Advocate, Bob Killeen of UAW=
, Ed Donahue of the Lithographers, Norm Hammink of the Typographical Union=
=E2=80=94even though he didn=E2=80=99t get along with my father=E2=80=94and=20=
the St Paul and Minneapolis Teachers Unions, who carried many important reso=
lutions on war into broader labor bodies.

JOHN T WILLIAMSJohn T Williams, who w=
as a prominent African American officer of Teamsters Local 208 in Los Angele=
s, and a national anti Vietnam war leader, used to say, "When the student=
s stood up against the war, it pricked the conscience of America=E2=80=94but=
when labor sits down against the war=E2=80=94the war will end."

SITDOWNAs it turned out, orga=
nized labor did not sit down in the factories and the workplaces to stop the=
war before direct American participation in the ground war ended in Jan 197=
3. Maybe we would have if it had gone on longer. Maybe if we had we would ha=
ve known what to do when they started moving our jobs to overseas sweatshops=
. But even this is more complicated. The Vietnam War WAS ended by a sit-d=
own strike=E2=80=94-a sit-down strike by labor, even---and this is the best-=
kept secret of the war. The GI=E2=80=99s, the American troops, ended the=
war by going on a sit-down strike. They just quit fighting. By 1972 refusal=
s to fight were becoming epidemic. Troops who were ordered to head into the=20=
jungle to fight would go out a ways and just find a spot to stop at where th=
ere was no fighting.

By mid-1972 it was clear to the inner circles of the Pentagon that if the=
war did not end VERY soon, the probability of open insurrection breaking ou=
t among the troops=E2=80=94somewhere, somehow and rapidly spreading througho=
ut the Army in Vietnam was very great=E2=80=94in fact a certainty. This was=20=
an urgent and unpostponable crisis with no solution other than a rapid end t=
o the ground war. Not only would this have created an incredible crisis of A=
merican power throughout the world, but it, probably more than any other fac=
tor, would have accelerated the movement of organized labor into antiwar act=
ion. This is what really happened.

WALTER REUTHERIt was the great stude=
nt strike in May 1970 that broke the solid front of organized labor in suppo=
rt for the war. On May 7 Walter Reuther, the head of the United Auto Workers=
union and possibly the most authoritative union leader in the United States=
at that time, telegrammed President Nixon condemning his decision to invade=
Cambodia and calling the Kent State killings "inexcusable." Other top union=
leaders repeated Reuther=E2=80=99s example: Pat Gorman of the Meatcutters a=
nd Jacob Potofsky of the Clothing Workers.

And then this happened: On May 9, 1970, the same day as the giant St Paul an=
tiwar demonstration, a private plane crashed on its approach to a small airp=
ort at Pellston, Michigan, near the site of the UAW=E2=80=99s Black Lake con=
ference center. All six people aboard were killed, including Walter Reuther=20=
and his wife May...I think any further comment on this event would be superf=
luous, under the circumstances.CONCLUSION

The st=
akes are high, very high, in this struggle. But it must be fought. Inherent=20=
in the reckless warmongering of the un-elected oil oligarchy in the White Ho=
use is the possibility of nuclear war and the unimaginable catastrophe for t=
he human race that that implies.There are two things I want to point to in c=
onclusion. One, there is unprecedented opposition to and agitation around th=
e impending war with Iraq. Labor is more deeply engaged in this process than=
at any time since the period before World War I=E2=80=94the war, I might ad=
d, that was advertised as the "War to End War." The Vietnam Syndrome, far fr=
om being dispersed by several decades of unceasing and escalating pro-war pr=
opaganda, especially in the popular culture, has visibly re-emerged with gre=
at force, renewed by a new generation of antiwar activists.Two, it ought to=20=
be crystal clear, and I=E2=80=99m sure it is to the warmakers, that a prolon=
ged ground war in the Middle East would provoke a wave of active opposition=20=
that would reach far into the ranks of labor. That much is obvious already.=20=
The only possible government response to that, if they were not willing to a=
bandon their war, would be greatly increased repression of free speech, free=
assembly and free expression. You would have to be blind to fail to see tha=
t the administration has already reached this conclusion and is preemptively=
putting into place a repressive apparatus unprecedented since the public sa=
fety committees of world War I. The now official establishment of the "Homel=
and Security Department," with its echoes of the Nazi Heimwehr =E2=80=93the=20=
"Homeland Defense" battalions of the SS--should make it plain enough what is=
being prepared. The recent intervention by the administration in the Longsh=
ore Workers contract negotiations shows where they are headed with this.The=20=
labor movement has the power to stop this, if it is united and willing to ac=
t. If this can happen, it will not occur just in one step. It will require d=
iscussion=E2=80=94and debate=E2=80=94in the halls of labor=E2=80=94just as i=
s beginning here. If we allow this discussion to be driven out of the labor=20=
halls and the union meetings=E2=80=94if we allow the discussion to be monopo=
lized by the professional politicians, the newspaper pundits and the talking=
heads on TV=E2=80=94the cause of peace will be far set back, and the workin=
g people, those in uniform as well as those in the workplaces, will suffer a=
gain. Nothing good comes out of war=E2=80=94wars for conquest, wars for prof=
it, wars for domination.Let me finish with this: Our comrade and teacher Gen=
e Debs told us, in his speech at Canton, Ohio in 1918:"Do not worry over=20=
the charge of treason to your masters, but be concerned about the treason th=
at involves yourselves. Be true to yourselves and you cannot be a traitor to=
any good cause on earth."